I will rephrase the question slightly. Will fractal images ever appeal to people who have no interest in fractals? Can fractals compete with traditional art for people's attention? For instance, in advertising, art prints, T-shirts, product packaging. Will our moms ever take our fractal greeting cards, frame them and say to us next time we visit, "I loved that card you sent me, everyone asks me about it, where did you buy it?"

I would say yes. But the challenge right now is awareness. Fractals are still rather new and obscure (in my "hard-headed" opinion). There's alot of people out there that don't know what they're missing! I think it will just take some time, but the internet, by being cheap and accessible, is speeding up what would otherwise be a slow process. The mainstream media from which most people are informed doesn't cover much, so people will find out about fractals from the internet.

Up until 2 years ago I was one of those people that didn't know what they were missing. Although my hobby had been computer graphics, I knew little about fractals and thought they were pretty dull, like the plain, flat, rainbow-banded images I had seen in a few magazines, where fractals were presented as having mostly mathematical appeal and the images were just there to illustrate the formulas. But when I stumbled on some cool looking fractals on the internet, my opinion changed very quickly.

Why do we fractal enthusiasts like fractals? Our interest isn't primarily mathematics is it? Isn't it art: images that are interesting to look at, and that we return to look at.

Are we "mainstream" folks? Do any of us like "mainstream" art? Then I think other people who like Van Gogh, Monet, etc... also will be "moved" or stunned by fractal beauty like we have. I don't think we're much different than most people.